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Sunday, November 6, 2011

Firefighters!

Carter and Harrison had a blast their first few weeks of homeschool! They have loved getting to pick what they learn about, and they cannot get enough of our library!

Our very first official unit study was on firefighters and what they do. What a neat topic! Carter and Harrison's first stop was the library, where they rushed to the nonfiction books to look up firetrucks. After making our selections, we headed home and I spent an hour or two looking up fun print-outs that were about firefighters. I printed some coloring pages, vocab lists, and even math worksheets that all were themed for firefighting! I created some index cards with our new vocabulary words, and I got the materials together that we would need for a few craft projects. My good friend sent me a helpful website that contained a list of themed websites- one just for firefighting! I browsed Netflix and found an age-appropriate program that was all about the life of a fireman! Add these fun themed school works to some other "core" activities- and we had a full unit curriculum! (**The Netflix was not part of school, I just added it for fun. It ended up working out perfectly because Kurt brought Strep home and Harrison spent an entire day in bed- poor fella! But he was thrilled to watch the fun firefighter program, and he actually learned things from it too!)

Carter loves to do worksheets with Blue on his shoulder!

Over the course of the unit we worked on some small art projects, and one larger project. Our large project was to create fire engines! I really enjoyed doing a complex project- the fact that it took so much time was wonderful, because we were able to space out the creation of the fire engines. Our first step was to paint some boxes.

We read, painted, read, did some workbooks, read, did some fun activities on websites, and read some more! We took our time on the unit, discovering and learning everything we could about life as a firefighter. We waited until the very last night of our unit to finish our fire engines. When they were completed, the boys couldn't wait to take a "ride!"

The unit culminated with a private tour of our city's biggest fire station. What an AMAZING experience! The kids truly received star treatment, and they spent almost two hours learning all about the life of a firefighter! They saw where the trucks and engines were kept, they got to "work out" in the station's gym, they snacked in the firehouse kitchen, they washed a fire engine, they got to play firemen (the dispatcher called for them by name, and they followed the firefighters to the engine, pretended to drive to the fire, and used a REAL fire hose to put out a pretend fire!!!) they got to sit in every single fire vehicle, got to see what it is like in a haz-mat suit, and got to push more buttons and turn more knobs than they have ever touched in their lives! I am not exaggerating, this was the neatest tour of a fire station I have ever experienced, and the firefighters were thrilled to have our little homeschool family visit! What a treat!!!